Monday, May 13, 2013

Who Am I And Why Am I Giving You Advice?

Indie publishing is a dynamic
industry. Changes can—and do—happen daily. It's what makes self-publishing a
challenge, but it is also what makes it so thrilling. If you find staying on
the pulse of an ever-changing, fluid industry to be exhilarating, then you are
right in your element. Becoming an independent, self-published author is a
great way to have fun, generate additional streams of revenue and build a new
career.

In 2008, I was writing for television
on General Hospital: Night Shift. The future looked promising—until the
show was unexpectedly canceled. By 2009, I was unemployed but still not
worried. After all, I had mad skills. I was a Northwestern graduate and had
done post-grad work at UCLA. I had years of work experience in various fields.
Another job should be right around the corner, right?

By the time 2010 rolled around, I was
worried. My unemployment had run out, my savings were a thing of the past and
there were no jobs. Forget writing, I couldn't even get work as a temp. I was
using credit cards to pay the bills and scrambling for whatever odd jobs I
could snag.

Fortunately, I had also finished
writing my first novel about a woman who was in the same boat I was, Somebody
Tell Aunt Tillie She's Dead. The protagonist, Mara, had lost her job and
her unemployment was running out. To top it off, she was evicted from her
apartment, banned from Beverly Hills, and her tarot cards were predicting her
imminent demise. So, against her better judgment, Mara used a little magic to
make her world right, and that decision set off a life-changing cascade of
events.

Inspired by friends who were indie
authors, I decided to take the plunge into the indie world, hoping that by
taking control over my career, for better or worse, I would be bringing a
little magic into my life as well. After all, what did I have to lose?
Career-wise, I had hit rock bottom.

That decision set off a life-changing
cascade of events.

I finished the last rewrite of Tillie
in April 2011, set up my publishing account in May and launched the book in
June, sending it to book bloggers for reviews and authors for book blurbs.
Then, in July, I officially let the world know that Tillie was
available.

The first few months, I basically
made coffee money—$25, $18 and so on. It was better than nothing, but I had no
idea how it was going to pay the bills. My credit cards were maxed out, and I
was working for a film producer for free, hoping it would lead to a paying gig.

The next decision I made would launch
my career.

I co-wrote a short story with a
friend for a charity anthology she was editing. Every Witch Way But Wicked
was launched in October, featuring a number of already established, indie
authors. It was for a good cause, all proceeds went to charity, and I never
expected anything to come of it.

I was wrong.

Suddenly, readers who bought the
anthology and read our story wanted more. By the end of October, I was floored
to find out I had sold 226 copies of Tillie. The ball was rolling, and
it was only going to get better.

In November, I sold more than 900
copies of Tillie. In December, I sold over 1,000 copies. And then Amazon
launched Amazon Select, so I jumped in. When it comes to indie publishing, it's
the early risk-takers who tend to reap the most rewards.

Thanks to Select, my visibility shot
up and suddenly, I was selling between 1,700 and 3,300 copies of Tillie
every month. By the end of June 2012, I had sold over 18,000 books, and I was
getting fan mail from around the world. Every day was like Christmas, and every
new review was a brightly wrapped present. I crunched numbers, tracked
algorithm changes, explored marketing options and discussed the business of
indie publishing incessantly.

It wasn't long before I stopped
looking for a day job to fall back on and embraced my new career as a full-time
indie writer.

Being an indie has enabled me to meet
and befriend a world of readers, form friendships with other indie writers,
build a dedicated fan base, pay my bills, rent an office, get my daughter into
a better school district, pay down my student loans and fund a retirement
account. What started as an experiment ended up completely changing my life.

As of this writing, Tillie has
consistently been in the top 20 of the U.S. genre bestseller lists for the last
nine months, and on the U.K. Bestseller list for the last month.

If you have a passion for writing, if
you're ready to treat your career as a business, if you love having total
control over your work and are willing to take on the extra responsibilities
being an indie entails, this is your time to shine.

For the first time in history, you
have the ability to bypass the gatekeepers, carve out your own career, control
your product and reach out to readers directly. And you have the support
system—from book sites like Kirkus and book bloggers, to freelance
artists and editors, to an extended online support system of fellow indies—to
make your dream of being a professional writer a reality.

If you're on the fence, I urge you to jump in and give it
a try. This is the best time to be an indie. Indie publishing is the wild, wild
West of the modern-day era. There are no hard-and-fast rules, everything
changes on a daily basis, and the scrub-brushy piece of land you stake out
today could wind up being the Napa Valley of tomorrow.

(Originally published on kirkusreviews.com as "Christiana Miller: The Self-Publishing Bestseller on 'How I Did It'.")

2 comments:

Thank you! It was the best decision I've ever made. It's why I try to encourage and help others who are thinking about trying it. I love storytellers and I want to see them all be as successful as possible. Because, selfishly, I want more great reads out in the world! :-D